Offers both students and professionals with the tools necessary for success in starting and growing a technology enterprise. This book addresses technology ventures, covering topics that engineers would be interested in.

This book is written primarily for people who are creating the future high-tech world by designing, building, and marketing innovative products. More specifically, it is for all engineers, engineering managers, entrepreneurs and intapreneurs. The book provides insight into the problems entrepreneurs face and gives a model for successful startup companies in a formal checklist.

This book seeks to answer “why, when and how are real options used in strategic technology venturing?” This work tests for the role of real options in decision making involving three types of firms in decreasing order of technology-dependence – technology-driven (TD) (where the profit is fully dependent on new technology creation and leveraging), technology-based (TB) (where the profit is enabled and supported by technology) and technology-neutral (TN) (where the profit is almost independent of technology). It also deals with strategic and non-strategic types of decisions driven by real options. This analysis shows that an environment presenting co-opetitive (simultaneous competition and collaboration) conditions triggers the use of real options (why), that serve to transform the position, posture and propensity of businesses to innovate and thus they co-evolve (when) into more effective and efficient forms of businesses (co-specialization) (how). The authors demonstrate that embracing risk and uncertainty can increase levels and probability of new venture formation. However, their simulation also shows that it should be adapted to the risk profile of the firm and that timing is also a factor to be considered. Although engaging the concepts of real options, this analysis does not focus on a specific investment valuation methodology, but highlights the relationship between knowledge and risk and rather addresses the management of mindsets, as moving towards a systematic conceptualization of real options represents a different paradigm in decision making.

Fundraising for venture capital investments have continued to increase in recent years. One crucial step in the investment process is the valuation of the target company. Investors are faced with the great challenge of valuing a young venture without a corporate or financial history, a firm customer relationship or even a business model, while still taking into account the tremendous growth potential. Especially the valuation of technology companies is a difficult and often subjective process. Motivated by these considerations, this dissertation details a design science research project, which aims to develop an artifact that improves the indication of value in early-stage technology venture valuation while enabling operationalizable and fair valuation. This approach ensures a more meaningful valuation and better applicability to early-stage technology ventures compared to traditional methods while supporting the deliberate reduction of information asymmetries between entrepreneurs and investors. Firm-specific characteristics and practical applicability are taken into account.

The first textbook to thoroughly examine a global phenomenon known as "technology entrepreneurship," this text provides an action-oriented approach through the use of examples, exercises, cases, sample business plans, and recommended sources for more information. This comprehensive collection of concepts and applications details the critical differences between scientific ideas and true business opportunities.

Explanations to the inner workings of one of the least understood, but arguably most important, areas of business finance is offered to readers in this engaging volume: venture capital. Venture capitalists provide necessary investment to seed (or startup) companies, but the startup is only the beginning, there is much more to be explored. These savvy investors help guide young entrepreneurs, who likely have little experience, to turn their businesses into the Googles, Facebooks, and Groupons of the world. This book explains the often-complex methods venture capitalists use to value companies and to get the most return on their investments, or ROI. This book is a must-have for any reader interested in the business world.

Better Venture is a first-of-its-kind guide to diversity and inclusion in startups and venture capital—who funds, who gets funded, and how the industry can change. The industry’s lack of diversity and inclusion not only compromises moral standing—it means overlooking profitable businesses and talented founders. That costs hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and neglects ideas that could serve the needs of many more people. In this collection of interviews, stories, and research, we use the momentum that has been building in recent years to expand the conversation about DEI, venture capital, and the startup ecosystem, and to inspire more concrete action. Highlights: - 43 in-depth conversations with leading investors, entrepreneurs, and researchers, making it one of the most comprehensive and diverse sets of perspectives on the startup ecosystem ever assembled in one place. - An economic history of venture capital through a diversity lens. - On-the-ground stories from founders and VCs that explore ways to create a more diverse, inclusive, equitable, and profitable venture ecosystem. No blog post can give the deep understanding and vision needed to address the complexity of the topic. That’s why we came together to write this book and are bringing in so many voices to clarify the picture of what is and what could be. Over the course of two years of research and discussion with almost 100 experts, we set out to answer four questions: - Why has the industry been so slow to change? We map the economic origins and history of venture capital to understand how the economics of VC has contributed to the glacial pace of diversifying the industry. - What barriers are founders and investors facing now? We draw on contributions from investors, operators, founders, and journalists to help catalog the barriers for founders seeking funding, and for investors seeking entry and influence in the industry. - Can diversity really lead to higher returns? We bring in new research and data to help us understand how betting on underrepresented founders and investors is really the better venture. Why does diversifying the industry matter, and to whom? How is it linked to financial performance and better decision making? How will it improve innovation across industries? - What can be done for positive change? We discuss cost effective and evidence-based interventions, tools, and solutions that can help to make the VC and startup worlds more diverse and inclusive—and result in higher returns. We hope this book and the conversations it contains help fulfill the vision of a more diverse, inclusive, and profitable ecosystem. It’s time venture got better.